Friday, November 01, 2013

Days 18&19 Tuamotus to Hawaii

We've been sailing with the "second" reef in our main sail; the staysail; and a scrap of jib which gets trimmed in and out for squalls. Second reef is a misnomer because our main sail only has two reefs. The first is a reasonable reduction and we sail with it in often. But the second reef wasn't calculated correctly and it brings the main down to almost the size of a storm sail (itty bitty). John has been meaning to add another reef point in between the two to increase our options.

18-22 knot winds bring boisterous seas and we are now in the hard home stretch to Hawaii. If you've ever flown there from the mainland, these are the conditions you look down on from the comfort of your jumbo jet and say, "I sure wouldn't want to be in a sailboat out in that!" Nothing dangerous, just messy white caps and waves breaking on the side of the boat now and then (soaking the cockpit). Down below we keep a firm grip and/or brace ourselves against two opposing points with our legs/feet to keep from being thrown across the boat because we never know when one of those waves is going to hit. We can expect another day or two of this and then we're hoping it backs off a little.

Thanks to everyone who confirmed official reports of my comet/meteor sighting. Even though I thought it was spectacular, it's nice to know that it was significant enough to make the news.

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before. If you're interested in more details about our weather conditions and progress, go to http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps_reporting_boat_list where the Pacific Seafarer's Net is tracking Nakia. John (HAM call sign KE6HUA) reports in with them by HF radio every evening with our daily stats and they post it for all of you to see. This is a HAM net run by dedicated volunteer amateur radio enthusiasts all over the Pacific. In case of an emergency, they are the best people we could hope to have watching our backs for us. We can't thank them enough for being there every night of the year!

Pura Vida is way out ahead of us and hopes to be in Hilo by Noon on Sunday. If we can keep up our current rate of progress we're looking forward to making landfall sometime late Tuesday night.

We moved aboard Nakia in October, 1991. After 13 years of saving our paychecks we cruised British Columbia for two months before heading south to join the 2004 Baja Ha-Ha to Mexico. This blog is a journal of our experiences as full time cruisers.